His response to the inquiry provided an
opportunity for him to forward an authoritative exposition of the history
and teachings of the Cause itself. That same year, with Shoghi Effendi's
encouragement, the National Spiritual Assembly of the United States and
Canada submitted to the international organization a document entitled "A
Baha'i Declaration on Human Obligations and Rights", which was to inspire
the work of Baha'i writers and spokespersons over the decades that
followed.(136) A year later the eight National Spiritual Assemblies then
in existence secured from the responsible United Nations body
accreditation for "The Baha'i International Community" as an international
non-governmental organization.

It was not only the Faith's slowly emerging relationship with the new
international order that elicited support of this kind from the Guardian.
The pages of _God Passes By_ and Amatu'l-Baha's memoirs of the Guardian
are filled with references to responses that influential individuals and
organizations made to initiatives taken by Shoghi Effendi and to the
events around the world in which Baha'i representatives were invited to
participate. In the perspective of history, one is struck by the vast
disparity between many of these relatively inconsequential occasions and
the attention given them by a figure whose work was not only of enormous
importance to humanity's future, but who understood fully the relative
significance of events unfolding around him. What the Baha'i community has
been given in this careful record is a guide to the way that it must take
up the growing opportunities born out of modest beginnings.

From the moment of its accreditation, the Baha'i International Community
began to play an energetic role in United Nations' affairs. An activity
that won it much appreciation was a programme carried out, through the
expanding network of Baha'i Assemblies, to provide the public with
information about the United Nations itself, and which gave generous
support to struggling United Nations associations throughout the world. By
1970, the Community had secured consultative status with the United
Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC). This was followed in 1974 by
the granting of formal association with the United Nations Environmental
Programme (UNEP) and in 1976 by the acquisition of consultative status
with the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF). The influence and
expertise developed during these year